Thanks for the reply guys, I decided to take the RA role, id rather be doing something than nothing

Hi all,

I’ve just recently completed my PhD in a life science subject. The work was hard, and I was self-funded, which made things more difficult, but I really enjoyed working there and managed to achieve several good publications.

I’ve been reading quite a few articles on industry vs academia and a lot of them say if you want job stability or high pay you should go for industry. Iv recently been offered a position in an industry which is conducting interesting work, although the position is a research assistant one. I think the position is fair considering I don’t have much of the skillset they require. I’m just worried that I may be shooting myself in the foot when it comes to future job prospects. I want to do some post doc work but I’m worried that I may not get a position and thus end up wasting my time, or even if I do get a post doc after 2 or 3 years I’ll not be able to get another postdoc and thus be out of a job. Then if I wanted to enter industry I’ll probably have to accept a low salary position, as I could be spending those 2/3 years progressing in industry.

My supervisor has also applied for a grant for me to be a principal investigator for some work, but its outcome would be known midway throughout the year. My uni isn’t providing opportunities for work till then. Also, I’m not full of ideas when it comes to grant applications, I’m thinking if I’m not good at generating new ideas would I be suited for academia, even though I enjoy problem solving.

I’m kind of confused and I don’t know what to do, should I choose a low rank job for the sake of stability, or should I take the risk and wait. I had previously taken a similar risk after my MSc and I was jobless for a long time. Do people commonly generate novel ideas after their PhD or postdocs.

If I sound like I’m rambling it’s probably cause I’m writing multiple thoughts that have been bothering me.